Forewarned, forearmed?

Personal Daily HoroscopeSaturday, 24 May 2008born 4 May 1960

Letting go

Today you may have to encounter and even oppose powerful pressures and forces exerted upon you, both from without and from within. The way you live and exert your energies will be tested today, perhaps forcing you to make radical changes in the areas of your life that you find are not working very well. The best way to use this influence is to let go of old patterns of behavior that today's events demonstrate to be invalid. Holding on to them will only make your life more difficult, and if you give them up, you will have room for the positive creative changes that can take place now. Also you may have to contend with the breakdown of machines or situations. Anything that tends not to function very smoothly will work very poorly today. It is time to straighten out the situation or fix up the mechanical problem.

BREAKING!Hamilton Jordan, 63

The possibility is growing stronger that a special prosecutor will have to be appointed to investigate the evening's entertainment enjoyed by the White House chief of staff. Under the stringent provisions of the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, there may be no other way to determine whether it is Jordan or his accusers who are telling the truth.

Two new witnesses turned up last week. One, a show business public relations agent named Barry Landau, provided the first corroboration of part of the story — though not the crucial part — told by lawyers for Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, two own ers of the celebrated disco. They are under indictment for tax evasion, and Schrager has also been charged with possession of cocaine. The White House has accused them of concocting false charges against Jordan in order to bargain for leniency. Landau, who said he had met Jordan at various receptions and dinners, has no such obvious ax to grind, though he is a crony of Rubell's. Said he, in a sworn statement given to the FBI:

"I was at Studio 54 when I ran into Hamilton Jordan ... He said he wanted to see where all the action was, where the famous basement caves were and if he could obtain some cocaine ... Shortly thereafter Steve Rubell appeared, whom I proceeded to introduce to Ham and his lady friends. A young man who is referred to as Johnny C and whom I know by sight and reputation as the man who always seems to put his fingers on such items as Ham had requested, suddenly appeared.

They [Jordan, Rubell and Johnny C] disappeared for a while." Rubell had earlier said that during the disappearance Johnny C slipped Jordan some coke and Rubell watched him snort some.

Last week, however, the FBI found Johnny C. TIME learned two details of his statement: he said his name is John Conaghan—and he denied ever giving Jordan any cocaine. That contradicted a statement he allegedly made on tape to Studio 54's owners. The FBI interviewed four other people who had been with Jordan at Studio 54; none had observed any use of cocaine.

However the Studio 54 incident turns out, Administration supporters fear that new accusations of White House aides using drugs may come from other sources.

Since early in the Carter Administration, in fact, there has been talk in Washington of such practices. Indeed, the matter came up explicitly in July 1978, when Dr.

Peter Bourne, health policy adviser to the White House, had to quit his post after he had improperly prescribed a drug for a friend. At the time, sources charged that Bourne himself had used cocaine. He told a New York Times reporter that there was "a high incidence" of marijuana and occasional cocaine use among members of the White House staff.

Barbara Harvey climbs into the back of her small Honda sport utility vehicle and snuggles with her two golden retrievers, her head nestled on a pillow propped against the driver's seat.

A former loan processor, the 67-year-old mother of three grown children said she never thought she'd spend her golden years sleeping in her car in a parking lot.

"This is my bed, my dogs," she said. "This is my life in this car right now."

Harvey was forced into homelessness this year after being laid off. She said that three-quarters of her income went to paying rent in Santa Barbara, where the median house in the scenic oceanfront city costs more than $1 million. She lost her condo two months ago and had little savings as backup.

"It went to hell in a handbasket," she said. "I didn't think this would happen to me. It's just something that I don't think that people think is going to happen to them, is what it amounts to. It happens very quickly, too."

Harvey now works part time for $8 an hour, and she draws Social Security to help make ends meet. But she still cannot afford an apartment...

Defined: Salon

sa·lon [suh-lon; Fr. sa-lawn]–noun, plural -lons [-lonz; Fr. -lawn]

1. a drawing room or reception room in a large house.2. an assembly of guests in such a room, esp. an assembly, common during the 17th and 18th centuries, consisting of the leaders in society, art, politics, etc.3. a hall or place used for the exhibition of works of art.4. a shop, business, or department of a store offering a specific product or service, esp. one catering to a fashionable clientele: a dress salon; a hair salon.5. (initial capital letter) (in France)a. the Salon, an annual exhibition of works of art by living artists, originally held at the Salon d'Apollon: it became, during the 19th century, the focal point of artistic controversy and was identified with academicism and official hostility to progress in art.b. a national exhibition of works of art by living artists: Salon des Refusés; Salon des Indépendants.

What do you mean, "it was dark..."

perfect scene: dark room, huge sofa, and two striking, gorgeous women lounging. the shooter comes over slowly, snaps the shutter, smiles and moves away, happy that he got a lovely, natural looking photo that's gonna work perfectly as a context shot for the party he's covering.

an hour later, the shooter finds himself standing next to the brunette above as the blonde takes the stage, and realizes that it's maybe time to reconsider this whole nightlife photography business if he's unable to recognize both annie lennox and gina gershon.

WTF?Everyone in Washington is reeling...

over Ted Kennedy's malignant tumor in his brain?Yeah, right.ONE man who could have helped countless people with cancer, at the "unfortunate young age of 74..." has cancer, and is "moving to the next stage, surgery..." and I'm supposed to feel badly?

The Scariest Scene in movies...EVER!SignsM. Night Shyamalan

Work as a hairdresser or barber has been confirmed as a potential carcinogenic influcence, according to a Working Group report of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), as published in the April 2008 issue of The Lancet Oncology.

Hair dyes are presently classified as permanent, semipermanent, or temporary dyes. The permanent (also called oxidative) dyes represent approximately 80% of the available products. They work by combining two chemical agents -- an intermediate and a coupler -- which are bound in the presence of peroxide to form the dye molecule. Dark dyes tend to contain the highest concentrations of these coloring ingredients. In the 1970s, after positive cancer tests in rodents, the use of some of these colorants was discontinued.

According to Dr Robert Baan, of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France, and colleagues, many new epidemiological studies on cancer in hairdressers, beauticians, and barbers have been published since 1993, the date of the last IARC assessment. "A small, but consistent, risk of bladder cancer was reported in male hairdressers + barbers. Because of few supporting findings by duration or period of exposure, the Working Group considered these data as limited evidence of carcinogenicity and re-affirmed occupational exposures of hairdressers and barbers as 'probably carcinogenic to humans'."

They also reviewed the epidemiological studies on the personal use of hair dyes, but this evidence was not adequate for a definitive conclusion about such treatments.

Many other chemicals, like hair dyes, belong to the group of organic molecules known as aromatic amines. Ortho-toluidine, used in many organic production processes including for hair dyes, pigments, and rubber chemicals, is now classified as carcinogenic to humans. Another curing agent, MOCA, which is used as a curing agent in plastics, also has joined this classification.

Icon.1924

Patron SaintMay 14

St Mattias became an Apostle after the Resurrection to replace Judas Iscariot.

Choosing a replacement meant finding a disciple who had been with them from the beginning and who had witnessed the Resurrection. Eventually it was between Mathius and Joseph Barsabbas, so the two cast lots so that the Lord might make the choice. Mathius preached the Gospel for thirty years in Judea, Egypt and Ethiopia.

He was martyred by stoning to death. His feast day is the 14th of May. He is the Patron Saint of tailors, carpenters and alcoholics.

The WHAT?The Lactation of Saint Bernard

This miraculous healing of an eye affliction by the milk of the Virgin Mary... ... is for someone who enjoys the bizarre in medieval culture, who wants to learn more about the powerful personage that was Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and who is interested in some of the more outlandish miracles of the Virgin Mary....

The Passion of the ChristThe Sequel

"You have no idea the blessings that you have coming" says Pro-Life Caviezel to parents considering adoption.

TORONTO (LifeSiteNews) - Jim Caviezel, the star of the blockbuster film The Passion of the Christ, told an interviewer that he had been challenged by a friend who was not pro-life to live up to his professed pro-life convictions and adopt a disabled child.

The friend told Caviezel that if he did that, then he would change to the pro-life position. When Caviezel and his wife, Kerri, went to China to adopt not one, but eventually two orphans suffering from brain tumours, the friend reneged on the deal. Caviezel, however, said, "It didn't matter to me because the joy that we had from (Bo) - he's like our own."

selfportrait v Mapplethorpe + Lyons

Monday, May 19, 2008

Touch me in the morningThen just walk awayWe don't have tomorrowBut we had yesterdayHey, wasn't it me who saidThat nothin' good's gonna last foreverAnd wasn't it me who saidLet's just be glad for the time togetherMust've been hard to tell meThat you've given all you had to giveI can understand your feelin' that wayEv'rybody's got their life to live

Hey, wasn't it yesterdayWe used to laugh at the wind behind usDidn't we run away and hopeThat time wouldn't try to find usDidn't we take each otherTo a place where no one's ever beenYeah I realy need you near me tonight'Cause you'll never take me there againLet me watch you go with the sun in my eyes...